Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Jeffrey Hill was set to be executed on March 3 for murdering his mother in Cincinnati. But Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland followed the recommendation of the Adult Parole Board, as he’s done with all other death penalty cases during his tenure, and now Hill won’t be killed.

The parole board voted unanimously to commute Hill’s death sentence to life in prison with eligibility for parole in 25 years, meaning Hill could be released as early as 2016 given the 18 years he’s already served on Death Row. The board went out of its way to detail its unusual reasoning.

Between 2000 and 2007, the U.S. government spent over half a billion dollars for the chemical spraying of approximately 2.6 million acres of land in Colombia--the world's second most bio-diverse country. Due to U.S. government pressure, Colombia is the only country in the world that allows this spraying--known as fumigation--as an anti-drug practice. Yet this practice has been a complete failure in its stated goal. Coca production--the raw material for cocaine and the "target" of fumigation--has actually increased by 36 percent since U.S.-backed fumigation began in earnest.

Between signing the stimulus bill into law and traveling to Canada, President Barack Obama found time Wednesday to fulfill a campaign promise: he went back on the air with the nation’s most popular Spanish-language radio host, Los Angeles-based Eddie “Piolín” Sotelo.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

World Health Day 2009 focuses on the safety of health facilities and the readiness of health workers who treat those affected by emergencies. Health centres and staff are critical life-lines for vulnerable people in disasters - treating injuries, preventing illnesses and caring for people's health needs.

They are cornerstones for primary health care in communities – meeting everyday needs, such as safe childbirth services, immunizations and chronic disease care that must continue in emergencies. Often, already fragile health systems are unable to keep functioning through a disaster, with immediate and future public health consequences.

Mary Robinson, who was the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights when al Qaeda militants flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001, said the United States caused harm with some of the ways it responded.

"Seven years after 9/11 it is time to take stock and repeal abusive laws and policies," the former Irish president said, warning that harsh U.S. detentions and interrogations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba gave a dangerous signal to other countries that could easily follow suit.

Facebook Becoming Lifeline for Finnish Politicians

published today 07:18 AM, updated today 07:42 AM

Image: YLE

Political party campaign offices around Finland are turning to the social networking site Facebook to boost their support bases. Parties on the left and right say Facebook is not a passing online trend, but a tool for engaging voters.

It's pretty clear now that factory farming methods of poultry for live sale in Asia provides the perfect breeding ground for regular flu as well as avian flu. The use of untreated manure from those birds is used on fields that wild birds then feed from and the pandemic cycle is begun - yes?

Poultry Stays Indoors During Birds' Spring Migration

published Sun 02:57 PM, updated Sun 08:26 PM

Image: YLE

An outdoor ban on poultry comes into force on Sunday, which marks the start of birds' spring migration. The ban, which lasts through the end of May, aims to prevent contact between poultry and wild birds that may carry avian influenza.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

These drone attacks create more support for al-Qaida and Taliban, than they help to bring peace - and they amount to political assassination which Presidential Executive orders forbid - it's a bush League tactic that like their water boarding torture creates more enemies, not fewer!

A suspected U.S. missile strike by an unmanned plane has destroyed an al-Qaida hideout in a remote Pakistani border region, killing at least 20 people and wounding many others. The early morning missile attack took place in the hostile South Waziristan tribal region, which borders Afghanistan and is known for harboring al-Qaida and Taliban militants.

She's quirky, she's tuneful and she's renowned for her eccentric dress sense. But there's more to Björk than meets the eye. Could this Icelandic singer help solve the country's economic crisis - and save the planet at the same time?

With its economy in tatters, Iceland is keen to earn money anyway it can. And the aluminium industry has been growing in the country due to cheap electricity. But that electricity has a high price when it comes to the environment. Last summer, the singer Björk and the band Sigur Rós organised a concert to raise awareness about the damage two new hydroelectric projects - meant to power aluminium smelters - would cause to Iceland's pristine fjörds.

Miep has declined interviews and plans to celebrate her birthday quietly with family and friends, the Anne Frank museum announced in a statement this week.

Born Hermine Santrouschitz in Vienna, Austria, Miep was transported to Leiden in the Netherlands from Vienna in December 1920 to escape the food shortages prevailing in Austria after World War I. In 1922 she moved with her foster family to Amsterdam. There, in 1933, she met Otto Frank when she applied for the post of temporary secretary in his spice company, Opekta.

Hillary Transue was sentenced to three months in juvenile detention for a spoof Web page mocking an assistant principal. (Niko J. Kallianiotis for The New York Times)

Instead, the judge sentenced her to three months at a juvenile detention center on a charge of harassment.

She was handcuffed and taken away as her stunned parents stood by.

"I felt like I had been thrown into some surreal sort of nightmare," said Hillary, 17, who was sentenced in 2007. "All I wanted to know was how this could be fair and why the judge would do such a thing."

The answers became a bit clearer on Thursday as the judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care.

"Our family's prayers have finally been answered, and we are so grateful to Gov. Strickland, the parole board and all of Jeffrey's supporters for giving him a second chance at life," Eddie Sanders of Cincinnati said in a statement. "The governor's actions today not only respect our wishes, but they also honor the memory of my beloved sister and Jeffrey's mother, Emma Dee Hill, who believed in the power of redemption and the value of all life."

Death Penalty Debate in States Heats Up

UPDATE: The New Mexico House of Representatives passed the death penalty repeal bill, by a vote of 40-28.

Today the New Mexico House of Representatives will be debating and possibly voting on a bill to abolish the death penalty (HB285). This is but one of a stream of bills to repeal or limit the death penalty under consideration across the country.